Lintel

Doorway Part

Broad, rounded lintel entirely carved in high, rounded openwork relief out of Totara timber. In the center is a large human figure with tongue extended and three fingered hands on its belly. This is flanked, on each side, by three smaller figures with human heads and sinuous bodies, and figures of a fantastical bird (manaia). The eyes of the human heads and some of the birds are inlaid with abalone shell (paua). This piece copied by Neke Kapua and Tene Waitere from a pare now in the Auckland Museum (AM. 164). It was made under the direction of Charles E. Nelson in 1898 and then displayed at the 1904 St. Louis Fair by T.E. Donne.